PEPEVAGGIO

‘Saint Pepe writing the the blockchain manuscript’ or simply, ‘PEPEVAGGIO’, is an oil painting made on canvas of 146x114 cm.

The painting is inspired in the work ‘Saint Jerome writing’ by the genius Caravaggio, where the aged and charismatic figure of the wisest Pepe is shown, illuminated by a strong contrast, writing the last sentence of the manuscript that will engender the blockchain. On the desk, the skull of an amphibious relative as a 'memento mori', a reminder of the transience of life and the inexorable end of everything earthly in favor of the metaverse.

Humor, satire and the reinterpretation of the old classics is something that I always try to make predominate in my paintings and drawings. And it is these three elements that generate a strong connection between each of my pieces despite being different in style and technique. I try to make people observe, have fun and generate a dialogue between the piece and the viewer.

Luis Simó is a plastic artist born in 1996 in Vielha, Spain.

He is currently making almost exclusively pictorial work and in the process of experimentation in Valencia, where he studied Fine Arts at the Polytechnic University from 2014 to 2019. In 2017 he completed his studies abroad in Krakow, Poland. And in 2021 won the National Painting Award of Mainel’s Foundation. Since then Simo has participated in numerous group exhibitions by being selected in different awards and competitions. New York, Miami, Tel-Aviv, London, Berlin or Jakarta are some of the cities where we can find his work in private collections.

Through his drawings and paintings, tries to show a particular universe in which the natural and the technological world coexist in the same medium. Color is one of the most important elements of his work, where he reflects on issues such as the natural environment, human behavior, internet or the use of mass media and the power and influence they exert on contemporary society. Furthermore, the artist offers a wide amalgam of references that blur the line between past and present, reality and fiction. Portraits of new and old acquaintances, old photographs, plants and animals, cartoons and even references to the history of art itself make up the bulk of this postmodern universe, in which both, the influence of the internet, nature and the city, and the the frequent presence, without abandoning humor and satire, of a social and critical tone are notable.